Children of the Stones (1977)

Children of the Stones (1977)

Dir. Peter Graham Scott | 7 episodes, approx 28 mins each.

Young Matthew Brake (Peter Demin) and his astrophysicist father, Adam (Gareth Thomas), arrive in Milbury, an English village built inside a megalithic stone circle. Adam's there to examine the stones, as his job dictates. Matthew begins to carry out his own investigation into the townspeople, who resemble something from a pagan Village of the Damned.

Prior to my most recent viewing of the Children of the Stones series it had been over twenty years since I'd last seen it. It had scared the living hell out of me as a kid, and while watching the opening credits again it was clear that it was going to give me a dose of the wiggins as an adult. It sure did. It's uncomfortably eerie, and bleeds atmosphere from every twist and turn. It's like Robin Hardy's The Wicker Man (1973) for children, as wrong as that sounds.

It has similar production values to early Doctor Who episodes, so don't expect anything remarkable there or in the prop department. On the plus side the direction is surprisingly shrewd, the young actors rarely put a foot wrong and the adults are similarly believable. In comparison to the interiors, the exterior scenes are shot on location at Avebury and, shitty British lighting notwithstanding, they've aged like a particularly fine wine.

The thing that'll likely remain in your mind the longest after viewing is the eerie music composed by Sidney Sager. Haunting doesn't even begin to describe it. It makes me shrink in my skin.